Monero may not be the best way to curtail financial surveillance, but privacy coins are here to stay, regardless of any future laws or opinions to the contrary. Your opinion of whether it is the best way to curtail it is an irrelevant footnote as privacy coins march on.
Technology such as atomic swaps mean privacy coins will never be killed by legislation. The best we can do is outlaw their use by the honest, relegating them only to the blackmarket (which is precisely the place you didn't want them in the first place).
Technology such as atomic swaps mean privacy coins will never be killed by legislation. The best we can do is outlaw their use by the honest, relegating them only to the blackmarket (which is precisely the place you didn't want them in the first place).